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The FIA GT1 Championship won't be making its way to China this year. The races were canceled. Photo by FIA

FIA GT1 Championship cancels its summer races in China

July 5, 2012

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The two Chinese rounds of the 2012 FIA GT1 World Championship scheduled for this summer will be canceled.

Series boss Stéphane Ratel has told the GT1 World Championship teams that the events in China, set for the Beijing Goldenport circuit in August and Ordos in September, will not take place. He has yet to officially confirm the move but he has stated that there the calendar will undergo a major retooling for the second half of the season.

“There will be a serious reshuffle of everything for the end of the season, and there is the possibility that there will be fewer rounds. I have made a proposal to the FIA, but I cannot communicate more at this moment,” Ratel said.

Ratel is known to be looking for at least one replacement race in Europe to add to the end-of-season races at the new Moscow Raceway in September and India's Buddh circuit in December. That would mean this year's world championship would be fought out over eight rounds, two down on the original 10-race schedule.

The reasons for the cancellation of the Chinese races are unclear, but Ratel is struggling to reach 18 cars he is contractually obliged to provide at the races outside Europe. There will again be just 15 cars at this weekend's GT1 World event at the Autódromo do Algarve circuit in Portugal.

There is also known to have been a dispute between the promoters of the two Chinese events over which should be first on the schedule.

A deal for the Aston Martin Racing-run Valmon Team Russia squad to return to the series with two Vantage GT3s borrowed from teams already racing the new-for-2012 car in Europe fell through. There will again be only one Ford GT run by the Spanish Sunred Engineering squad.